


What Daddy Never Said

by Androids_in_Metropolis



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-04-30 19:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5176490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Androids_in_Metropolis/pseuds/Androids_in_Metropolis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You could fill a book with everything Aaron Echolls didn't know about parenting. Veronica would write the book, and Logan would dictate. </p><p>A lawyer would finish up by giving Mr. Echolls his dues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: Tell me Everything

**Author's Note:**

> Second VM story, and this one with more chapters:)

His build is so familiar, Veronica thought, looking at the teen she had been spying on for the past hour. His back had been turned to her the whole time, so she couldn’t get the shot she needed; His face. 

Now, why was she spying on a teenage boy at 4:30pm on a school night? Well, she wasn’t exactly sure. Something about him was off though...she had noticed at the mall that he saw her, but turned away so quickly she couldn’t see his face. He looked to be purposefully avoiding her, she noticed. While that wasn’t unusual in her line of work, it most often meant the avoider was out to kill or cause some sort of harm to the avoided, in this case, herself. 

Now, normally she would just wait for the trouble to find her, but at this particular time she was a bit tired of trouble finding her. This time she was determined to find out who was after her, at least this once, before things got messy. Finally her turned…

“Logan?!” Veronica nearly shouted, her camera shaking in her too tight grip. Why would Logan be skulking around, avoiding her, and strangest of all...wearing uncharacteristically dark clothes? Muted grey, dark black. Finally she glanced back up his face, and a sharp intake of breath on her part was clearly audible over the sounds and bustle of the market place he had led her too. She assumed he had been trying to get lost in the crowed…

His face; It was bloody, a dark red gash unattended to above his eyebrow and a purple bruise on his cheekbone. His lip was busted, a plethora of lesser cuts and bruises littering his face and what she could see of his neck. 

In short, he looked like he had been mauled by a bengal tiger. 

She saw the spark of recognition in his face, noting that he seemed genuinely surprised to see her. Maybe he hadn’t been avoiding her at all… She wondered why he had been acting so suspiciously. Maybe these weren’t the wounds of another bar fight or school yard tiff? Maybe something was going on?

Veronica, ever the investigator, snapped the shot, leaving him in shock before sauntering over to him, trying to look like she knew his secret...whatever that was. 

“How’s the eye?” she asked, her tone almost snide. She and Logan had their differences, and sometimes it showed more than she meant for it to. She tried to look appealing...tried to look into his soul, so to speak. She could seem him visibly squirming under her gaze. 

“Just a bruise,” he mumbled, uncharacteristically docile. Whatever he thought she knew had to be big. “He didn’t mean it...really, it was my fault. I just walked into his hand,” he sneered, sarcasm and bitterness mixing into a volatile cocktail over his words. 

“Sure,” Veronica replied, trying to sound as fake as she could. She hoped he would drop the name...say who did it, then, maybe she could work out what the connection between his behavior and his physical state might be. “It was an ‘accident’,” she said, air quotes around the last word. She knew she was being insufferable...but she needed to know what was going on; Call it instinct...or nosiness. 

“Aw, yes Veronica. The great Aaron Echolls ‘accidently’ punched his kid in the face. Of course, he is but a loving father who got too worked up in the moment.” Logan was spitting his words, an actual fire behind his eyes. He looked angry...but also defeated. 

Veronica held back a gasp, acting as if she had known all along who had hurt him. All the while her mind was drawing the connections in, creating conclusions; Logan had said after his mother had died when he was an angry mess at school that his father wasn’t...ideal in the past, but he had implied that it was good now. He had implied that his dad had apologized, and honestly, no one had believed him anyway. Aaron Echolls was a beloved movie star, why would they believe his drunk son if he let it slip that when he was younger his daddy used him as an ashtray? 

“Let’s go find some ice, okay?” she said, her tone slightly softer, slightly less petulant. She reached for Logan’s clenched fist, taking his hand. He went stiff at the contact, though soon she felt his whole body relax. He seemed to have vented all his anger for the moment, and now he just seemed hurt. Veronica reached into her pocket and flipped the tape recorder on. 

Veronica chated softly to him as she found a restaurant that owed her a favor, borrowing a bag of ice and the staff lounge. She sat him down, handing him the ice to hold to his eye as she began to clean away the blood on his face. She wondered why he had dressed to cover himself up but hadn’t bothered to clean up his head. 

“You wanna talk about it?” she asked, using an age old trick to make him comfortable...to get the evidence she needed. She was comforting him...again...for the second time in as many days. After his mom had died (a mere week before) they had gotten closer; he had been broken and she was trying her best to tape him back together again because though she wouldn’t admit it even to herself, she missed the snappy, fun loving Logan that had drowned with his mother. 

Logan winced as Veronica applied pressure to the gash on his forehead. He wondered whether he should tell Veronica...he wondered if she cared or if she just needed to set things right because of her hero complex. He decided that either way, things couldn’t get much worse...not since his dad had confiscated his ‘drugs’. Not since his dad had decided he was his personal punching bag. Not since his mom had stopped being there to defuse the volatile, burning cord between himself and the elder Echolls man.

“Yeah, I guess…” Logan began, hissing in pain as she pressed his skin together, assessing the damage and weather or not stitches would be needed. “You know, I wasn’t lying when I said he used to beat me...He did, and then it stopped, and I got older and shit happened. When mom died...he got messed up. He knew it was his fault, and he started trying to be a father, like a real one, not just some half-assed sperm donor. I wasn’t buying it, and so it started again, and this time, she wasn’t there to stop it,” Logan gushed. It was like he had been waiting a long time to tell someone all this, get it off his chest, and he supposed that in a way he had. 

“How’d you get this one?” Veronica asked, lightly running a finger over his still open cut. She had decided it didn’t need stitches, but surgical tape was a definite. She had some in her bag, and she began to apply it, apologizing as she heard his pained hiss. 

“A...a lamp,” he mumbled, suddenly embarrassed. He wasn’t proud...not anymore. It was all a false bevado, it was a mask easily torn away, and he could feel it slipping. He didn’t like that he wasn’ in control any more. “He threw it, and I wasn’t fast enough-smart enough-to dodge it.”

Veronica could hear the tremor creeping into Logan’s voice. She knew he was losing it. It was the sound of someone moments away from a mental breakdown; The moment when a dam you built in your head crumbled down over a fault line, the thoughts and memories and emotions gushing over where the wall had once been. 

She knew that feeling all too well. When she had found her mom wasn’t in rehab...that she had never finished at all. Again when her mom had left for good, taking their money and love with her. It wasn’t the exact same, there had been no bloodshed, but it was still the feeling of abandonment and betrayal. 

“Tell me everything,” Veronica mumbled, sitting beside Logan and pulling him into a hug. She was less concerned with taping it and convicting his father now and more concerned with making him feel better. Getting Aaron out of the picture would be a long term goal. “I’m so sorry, Logan. You don’t deserve this.” 

“Veronica, he took my medicine,” Logan whimpered; He knew he was really beginning to look pathetic, if he didn’t before. He knew he was giving up more than just his pride by telling her these things...he knew she probably had a recorder behind her ear or something, and that she had shots of his messed up face. He knew people would find out and that it would be a pity party. God, he hated pity. He still wanted to tell her though, because now, he didn’t know where to turn. 

“Your medicine?” Veronica repeated, a little confused. She wasn’t aware of any conditions Logan was suffering from, but then again, his was a file she had never gotten a hold of. There were things she had yet to learn about him, even though it felt like his whole life story was now swimming around inside her head. 

“I’m a nut job, Veronica.” Logan was really crying now, pushing words out between shuddering breaths. “I have diagnosis...like four of them. I’m a fuckup,” he gasped, pulling away, a soft laugh bubbling up from somewhere inside him and making it’s way to his lips. It was a manic, desperate laugh. 

The dam had broken.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two is here loves

Veronica listened to Logan for over an hour, the small restaurant store room becoming a court. Veronica asked the questions, trying to calm him down and get the answers she needed at the same time. Logan ranted, getting up, pacing, tears streaming down his face. Sometimes he would start to laugh, sometimes he would break down, clinging to her. Veronica Mars was starting to be genuinely scared; Not for herself, but for Logan. 

“What’s your diagnosis, Logan? What did your dad do?” she asked him, watching him pace frantically back and forth from wall to wall of the tiny room. The tape recorder was heavy in her pocket, her eyes following his erratic movements. 

“Ha! She asks, she pries; I’ll tell you,” Logan said, his usual sarcasm almost back for the moment. His eyes were wild, his hands moving frantically as he spoke. “I’m bipolar, I’m depressed-I’m not even sure you can be depressed and bipolar at the same time-I have ADHD, PTSD...Basically, I’m fucked. Does he think I like taking the pills?” he was shouting now, his shoulders hunched forward. “Does he think I want to?” he seemed to be searching for her to reply, and so Veronica nodded, slowly, unsure of what she was supposed to say. 

“Well, I don’t! I hate taking them. They’re a prison, Veronica. I hate them. I hate that I can’t think without them, and that I can’t think with them. I hate that I’ll have to take them my whole fucking life-Does he think taking them away will stop my apparent drug addiction?” Logan was crying again, kneeled in front of her, his hands shaking as she let him wrap his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly to him. “Does he just want to hurt me from all sides?” 

Veronica was dumbfounded, unable to come up with an adequate reply; What do you say to a speech such as the one Logan was giving her? What did you say when someone was pouring out their soul to you in a kind of manic fever, a put upon child?

“Oh, Logan,” she managed, holding him to her, running her hands through his hair. It was all she could think to say...what had Logan done to deserve all this? It didn’t even cross her mind now that he could be lying. Why would someone lie about this? “Logan…”

“No! Keep going, Veronica. I know you have something somewhere that’d getting all this,” Logan snuffled, pulling away, seemingly embarrassed over his displays on neediness. “I know you’re gonna ask the right questions to get him sent to court or something, Veronica. Please, I need your help. I can’t do this any more...it’s been years, Veronica, my mom is dead Veronica. My girlfriend is dead and I know who did it, and now he’s trying to kill me...please Veronica, I never asked you for anything...please,” Logan broke down, though his speech was long and thorough, if somewhat sobbed. 

Veronica nodded, surprised by Logan’s assertiveness. His usual wit and sarcasm seemed to have been thrown to the wayside. His usual need to have the last word temporarily dismissed. He wasn’t too proud to ask for her help...for some reason that made everything seem even more sad. 

“Okay, Logan. I need you to calm down though; I’ll get everything you need, but you’re coming to my house, understand?” she asked, feeling almost bad for making this sort of deal with someone who obviously couldn’t turn her down. He needed the evidence and his meds and a place to stay, and she desperately wanted him out of harm's way. His breakdown was giving her a glimpse at the Logan that was inside the sassy ‘09er’; An average, scared, alone kid. 

“Do I have much of a choice?” Logan asked, a bit of crass making it’s way into his tone as he began to take deep breaths, leaning properly against the couch. “Just ask me what you need to. I’ll cooperate. I’m done freaking out now...I think.” 

“Okay; So, you’re saying that Aaron Echolls, your father, killed Lily?” Veronica asked, trying her best to turn full detective instead of concerned almost-friend. It was harder than she thought...who would think she’d ever feel bad for Logan Echolls, and yet, here she was. It felt strange to discuss her best friend's murder in such a blunt fashion...like it was just another case. 

“Yes, I’m saying that Lily...she was doing it with him, my dad. That’s why we broke up...but she said she was done with it, that she had tapes of it and that she’d take them to the police. She told me that when I was in Mexico, and so I came back as fast as I could...by the time I got back she was dead. Somehow my father knew she was going to turn him in, and he knew I knew.”

Logan stopped and took a deep breath. He had started to shake quite badly, as if he was reliving the whole thing from messy start to grizzly finish. Veronica put a hand on his shoulder, reminding herself that at this moment he wasn’t a posable friend, he was just a client. One didn’t start crying for a client, and one didn’t pull a client into a hug and never let go. 

“And that’s when he started to...hurt you, again?” she asked, her voice more shaky than she would have liked. Though seeing someone she knew in this kind of position was not a new thing for her, for some reason Logan being in this position shook her up more than she would ever admit. 

“When did he take away your prescriptions? What was his reasoning, if he had any?” She doubted he did. She had never liked Aaron Echolls; Either in his movies in or in real life. It was starting to make sense though...Lily’s secret was Aaron. That’s why she had been so proud in her last days. She’d seduced the biggest movie star in history, and an older man to boot. 

“Yeah, that’s when it started. He used to do things to me when I was younger...hit me and such, but my mum would stop him before it got too bad. Then I was older and he stopped, but after Lily it all started again and so much worse. Veronica, I’m pathetic. I didn’t stand up to him. I didn’t fight him,” Logan whimpered, a new side coming out. Veronica didn’t like this side...the self hating side. 

“He took them about a month ago...he said they were drugs, just like my mom took. He said I was strong enough to live without them, but Veronica, I tried. I wouldn’t take them...and things got bad.” Now Logan was defending himself, defending his condition, his need to be medicated. 

“Okay, that’s all,” Veronica said; It like forever since the investigation had started, and now she broke down. She quickly flipped the tape recorder off and gathered Logan up in an awkward hug, a few quiet tears running down her cheeks as Logan sobbed. His chest heaved against her’s, and she thought it was a wonder that he didn’t break all his ribs with each shuddering breath. 

They left the restaurant in his car, Veronica at the wheel. He had passed out in the passenger seat, all his emotions exhausting him; No doubt the bang to the head he seemed to have received had something to do with it, as well. 

She drove straight to her father’s office, parking the car a block away and waking Logan to walk the rest of the way. It seemed wise not to tip off exactly where they were going. Even though she doubted Aaron had thought his son would break and tell, and she doubted that he had anyone watching Logan, you couldn’t be too sure. 

When they got into the office everything was quiet as Keith listened to the recording on a headset and began to print out documents and make calls. Meanwhile Logan was absolutely silent, sitting sullenly on couch. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen now...he knew he’d probably end up living alone, and while the idea didn’t exactly appeal to him, it wouldn’t be much different from how it had been when he was growing up. He knew he’d probably go to court, answer questions, end up in the media...maybe he’d change schools. All of this was too much, too much to handle. 

Veronica started as she saw Logan getting shakily to his feet, only to bend over double and vomit onto the carpeted floor. 

‘He’s in shock,’ she thought as she got up and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him as she led him to get a glass of water. Quickly she looked up, surveying him; He looked numb, a glassy look shining in his eyes. His lips were slightly parted. His hand shook as he took the glass of water she handed him. 

She felt awful for him. She felt bad for feeling awful for him; She knew as well as anybody at Neptune high that Logan liked sass, wit, theatrics and pompousness...not pity. She couldn’t find it in her to be sassy at that moment, and being pompous had never been a strong point of hers. Instead she pretended for a moment that they were friends, and he let her. 

\-------------------------

Keith looked up from where he was working; Writing out legal documents, on the phone with the police department and a lawyer. It was easy to see that Logan’s story held, and even the part about Lily and Aaron was holding fast under investigation. It was equally clear that Logan should be removed from his current house as quickly as possible. Keith had volunteered, hearing Veronica’s offer on the tape. He wondered if he would have offered if she hadn’t first...he hoped he would. 

Looking across the room he saw both teens curled onto the couch, Logan’s head resting on Veronica’s arm. They were both fast asleep...their intimacy almost childish and primal in nature; Still, this was Logan Echolls they were talking about. He had been in a lot of trouble in the past, and Keith wasn’t sure how he felt about him touching his daughter, even in the most innocent of ways. Still, Veronica had a will of iron and if it was her choice to let him touch her, to touch him in return (a gentle squeeze on his arm, just to let him know someone's there) then he doubted he would be able to stop her. 

Logan’s stupid shell necklace left an indent on Veronica’s collar bone. Keith snorted. He felt bad for the kid, but what if he was just a bad kid?

Signing, he shook his head, turning back to his work. 

He just didn’t know...and he didn’t like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review and tell me what you think ^^ On a side not, this is slightly AU, as most of you probably know by now :)


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you guys so much for all the support :) It made me so happy~

When Veronica and Logan woke the next day they were still laying on the couch; ‘I must have been exhausted,’ Veronica thought, sitting up slowly, a little surprised to see that Logan was awake as well. He looked hungover; His eyes were red and puffy, and he looked almost like he hadn’t slept at all. 

Immediately the previous day’s events came flooding back to her; All the crying, and the messy facts, Logan...She instinctively reached over and hugged Logan to her, and to her surprise, he hugged her back. 

“You okay?” she asked softly, pulling away and getting to her feet. Her dad wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but she did see a little note tacked to the wall; Gone out to get food, be right back. 

“Yeah, I’m fine...just fine.” Logan was getting to his feet as well, stretching. Veronica noted a thin line of perfectly white skin between his shirt and his pants. She wondered why she noticed that...then she saw it; A thin red scar, running over his hip and down into his waistband. She wondered how he got that…

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, not sure why; Not of it was her fault, and she didn’t particularly care for Logan, but something about the whole situation made her skin crawl. It was sick, and somehow it was bringing out parts in Logan that she hadn’t believed existed; The scared little boy, the sad kid, the ignored teenager…

It was a mirror into another dimension that she wished she could have seen in different circumstances. As it was, she wasn’t sure what to do with it; On the one hand it made her feel all kinds of things...to see what must be the real Logan. On the other, it broke her heart a little bit. Aren’t there rules about getting attached to clients?

“It’s not your fault, Veronica. Stop apologizing, please, uless you can’t help yourself,” Logan nearly snapped, hiding his head in his arms. He looked absolutely miserable. Veronica had to refrain from apologizing again. It was just something she did...said sorry to people she liked even when it wasn’t her fault. 

Thankfully before anything more could be said Keith came through the door, humming to himself and toting a back of ‘Tommi’s Best’ doughnuts. He did a quick survey of the room, noting the tension...what could they have gotten up to when he was away? He didn’t like how the two locked eyes for a moment before looking quickly away as he walked into the room, a dead giveaway that some sort of connection had been made. 

“Doughnuts?” Keith asked friendlily enough, even though he was having a fight with himself inside his head. Logically he shouldn’t care if Veronica and Logan got on. Wasn’t it good that they were getting along? Logic, however, had nothing to do with Keith’s feelings...Logan was a party boy. Logan was overtly sexual, and Logan had a past with girls and messy outcomes. Sure, that had been a while ago, but still…

Keith passed Logan a strawberry chocolate puff, pulling out a classic bear claw for Veronica and situating himself behind his desk to begin to work on Logan’s case; The sooner it was worked out the better. 

“I want you two to skip school today and stay at the house,” Keith said between a bite of his own doughnut and signing his signature on a document to be sent away as quickly as possible. “You can stop at Supermart and grab Logan whatever he needs, but otherwise, do not leave the house. Do you understand?” He met eyes with Veronica, his gaze steady. It was one of those rare moments where he employed his full ‘don’t cross me, i’m your father’ power. 

“Yes, dad. We understand. We’ll just be locked away, pining until our boys get back from war,” Veronica snarked in return, though she nodded more seriously, signalling that she understood and would try her best not to get into any sticky situations that would cause them to have to leave the protection of the Mars house. Of course...she did have a knack for getting into just such situations. 

“Logan, do you understand? It’s extremely important,” Keith repeated, this time leveling his gaze with Logan’s battered face. “I’ll have some officers do patrol…” He was going over a mental check list of all the possible ways to keep not only Veronica but Logan safe too. There was no telling what a man with the kind of resources Aaron had could be capable of doing if provoked. 

“Yes, Mr. Mars. I understand,” Logan replied, keeping as much sarcasm out of his voice as he could. He really did appreciate what the Mars were doing for him, trying to keep him well and safe, but he was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate on any one thing and Keith’s worried tone was starting to wear on his already frayed nerves. 

“We’ll just stop at a pharmacy though, if Logan has his scripts...do you?” she asked, looking first at her father and then at the boy in question. He nodded slowly, and she noticed he wasn’t looking at her, but rather at the stop above her shoulder. She turned, following his gaze, but found nothing was there but the off white of the wall. 

“Okay, now hurry up. Get home as fast as possible,” Keith instructed, getting up to show them out the door before sitting back down to start making calls and financing evidence; The first call would be to the police to arrange an escort and guard for the two teens until everything with Aaron had been sorted out. If Logan was correct not only was he abusive, but also a rapist and murderer...he didn’t want there to be any chance that the man would get within twenty feet of his daughter, or any child, for that matter. 

He only hoped Logan wasn’t right…’The murder of Lilly Kane,’ he thought, ‘woo-eee.’

\----------------------------

Veronica drove, and Logan sat in the passenger seat. Veronica was still and Logan was practically jittering off his axis. They were both silent as they pulled up to a CVS drive-thru and Veronica passed Logan’s prescriptions through the window, where she was told to come back around in fifteen minutes. 

“Should we get you some clothes, and a toothbrush?” Veronica asked Logan, trying to find what they should be doing in the meantime. Obviously they couldn’t go to the Echolls’ house to get Logan’s things, so they would have to make do in the meantime. She gave him a worried glance when he didn’t reply, and she noted that he seemed totally spaced out…’Okay, clothes it is,’ she thought, putting the car in gear and driving it across the street to the little Neptune convenience store. 

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, Wallace’s caller ID flashing across the screen. She pressed answer, cradling the phone between her head and her shoulder as she tried to find a spot in the surprisingly busy parking lot. 

“Hello, Mr. Fennel,” she said, “How can I help you today? Dry cleaning is closed,” she added as a jokey afterthought. She and Wallace hadn’t been as close lately, what with Jackie and her own life being unusually busy. 

“V, if I wanted my laundry done I’d be better of calling my mom. What I want is to know why you aren’t at school.” Wallace sounded relieved, and she wondered if he had tried to call her the other day and she had missed it. She felt bad...she should have found time to tell him what was going on; Didn’t he deserve at least that much? 

“I’m sorry, I’ll explain it as soon as I’m not driving. I’ll send you an email, okay?” she said, already feeling bad for not being able to give her best friend the attention and information that he deserved...Wallace was the best guy she knew, aside from her dad, of course. Every time she let him down it twisted her heart, especially since she knew he’d understand and let it slide. 

“Yeah, V, okay. Just...promise me you're safe, okay?” Wallace said, defeated. He trusted veronica; If she was busy, she was busy, and if she said she’d tell him about it later, she would. There was no doubt about it-She was honest when she could be, and frankly, he was glad she lied to protect him sometimes. He wasn’t really into knowing all the gory details. 

“I promise,” Veronica replied, hoping it was true. While this wasn’t the most dangerous operation she had ever taken part in by a long shot, Aaron Echolls still had a lot of power to make bad things happen and then to cover them up. Wasn’t Lilly an example of just that? The thought made her skin crawl. “I gotta go Wallace. I’ll see you later,” she said, hanging up before she could say anything else. She knew a tremor would be in her voice. She now knew for sure, she felt, who had murdered her best friend. 

‘Cold comforts,’ she thought, grimacing as she finally found a spot and got out of the car, dragging Logan behind her into the store. ‘Cold comforts.’ 

\--------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please review and tell me what you think ^^

**Author's Note:**

> Please review darlings :)


End file.
